Congress, NCP ink pact for 3 bypolls, 6 council seats in Maha

May 03, 2018 23:52

The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party today entered into an electoral alliance for bypolls to two Lok Sabha and one Assembly seats and also half a dozen Legislative Council seats in Maharashtra.

As per an understanding reached between the two parties, the NCP and the Congress will contest the Bhandara-Gondia and Palghar Lok Sabha constituencies, respectively.

The Congress will also contest the Palus-Kadegaon Assembly seat in the Sangli district of western Maharashtra.

Bypolls for all three seats will be held on May 28.

The Congress and the NCP also concluded a seat-sharing agreement for the May 21 Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) biennial elections for half a dozen seats from local bodies constituencies with both the parties deciding to contest three each.

NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said senior leaders from both the parties held talks to finalise the electoral alliance.

NCP leader Praful Patel and the party's state unit president Jayant Patil and AICC general secretaries Mohan Prakash, Ashok Gehlot and Maharashtra Congress president Ashok Chavan took part in the parleys, Malik said.

As per the alliance, the Congress and the NCP swapped Latur-Beed-Osmanabad and Parbhani-Hingoli MLC seats. The Sharad Pawar-led NCP was keen on contesting the Latur-Beed-Osmanabad seat currently held by the Congress.

The Congress has decided to field Suresh Deshmukh in Parbhani-Hingoli, now held by NCP's Abdullah Khan Durrani. The NCP will field Ramesh Karad from Latur-Beed-Osmanabad, where the current MLC is Dilip Deshmukh of the Congress.

The Latur-Beed-Osmanabad segment is important for the NCP as party rebel and former MLA Suresh Dhas is the BJP candidate from the seat. -- PTI